Not Your Typical Running Back || nh au

Thirty-seven: "You can't let anyone get you down."

Since Niall and I are back together for three days, we decided to have a movie night together at his place, so we can have some time for ourselves. Luke and I had a huge fight after I told him that Niall and I are back together but we calmed down and he accepted it. Luke's going to fly back to the boys tonight because the boys need him and he thinks I'm okay again. He told me that he doesn't need me at the airport, so I can be with Niall and won't have a crying fit at the airport because Luke and I won't see each other for a few weeks. Harry is happy again, too, and the girls think it's good that Niall and I are back together. Right now I'm sitting on Niall's bed with him. He's putting the first movie on the TV while I hold the blanket warm. Niall put my foot up on a pillow and stuck one behind my back, so I sit comfortable. Missy is at Daniel's place over night.

"Niall, I need to use the bathroom", I tell him.

"Do you need help?"

"No."

I take my crutches and stumble to the bathroom. I can sit down alone but have huge pain in my ribbs, so I almost cry everytime I need to go to the toilet. As soon as I'm done with my business, I try to get up. It's pretty hard but I can do it, so I pull up my pants, wash my hands and go back to Niall's room. He already sits on his bed in the right corner of his room with only the TV lighting up the room, even though the sun's still out. He just closed the curtains. I jump up on his bed with one leg, so my ribbs hurt again and I cry out in pain. Niall pulls me up the rest of the way. He kisses my cheek, as soon as I'm under the blanket.

"So, can we start?", he asks, putting the bowl of popcorn between us.

I give him a bottle of Coke from the nightstand.

"Yeah, the force may be with you, young Padawan", I smile.

Niall turns on the movie. I hope I'll make it through the whole movie.

*****

"Niall", I whisper, poking his shoulder.

He grumbles something which I don't understand. I continue waking him up because the movie is over and he fell asleep right before the end. Maybe he'll want to watch the next movie.

"Niall", I laugh, poking his shoulder again.

He now opens his eyes, looking directly at me from my lap. Before the movie even properly started, he layed down on my lap, playing with my hand in his. He sits up, the warmth on my theighs disapearing.

"Is the movie done?", he asks.

"Yeah, it is. You wanna watch the next movie?", I smile at his tired state.

"Of course but you need to wake me up before the movie ends."

He gets up and puts on the next movie. As soon as he's back in his spot, Niall pulls me to him and lays my head on his shoulder. He pushes a pillow under my back. My head lays against his chest, as I slide down a bit. I feel his heart beat against my head. He takes a strand of my hair in his hand, so he can play with it. I love when he plays with my hair. It makes me feel safe. His arms are like my home. My home is in his arms. He kisses my head when... well... I don't even know what's going on in the movie. Niall lays his arms around my waist carefully, so he doesn't hurt me. My eyes wander to his fingers. They are locked with my right hand. He continues to play with my index finger. I feel my eyes shut once in a while, so I keep myself awake thinking of Niall. He's just amazing. I love him. I swear that I love him. Love is something completely new to me. Yes, I loved Michael but it's not like this. This is different. The butterflies are more, the feelings are stronger. I smile to myself, as Niall brings his arm around my neck. He kisses my head again, letting me know that he's still there for me. I pull the blanket up to my chest because it's getting cold.

"You cold?", Niall asks me.

I nod, not being able to speak because my throat feels weird. He cuddles himself closer, pulling the blanket up more and peppering my head with kisses.

"Niall, stop", I giggle, trying to pay attention to the movie.

He just continues kissing my head. I try to push him off but he's stronger than me. My begging fills with laughter, as soon as he starts to tickle my sides over the corsage. I feel the pain in my sides rise up again.

"Niall, stop. It hurts", I tell him, getting off of him.

He stops immediately, so I sit up and turn my head to him. I see that he's sorry for what he did but he doesn't have to. The guy from the Bulldogs should be sorry. Obiwan says something wise in the backround, so I laugh a little. A smile creeps on Niall's face.

"You okay again?", he asks.

"Nah", I tell him, my thoughts going back to what happened one week ago.

Now it's only one month and three weeks to survive without football. I will never survive this long time. It's the end of March, so I'll play football again in May and that's way too long. Why couldn't he just run past me? Why couldn't one of the boys stop him? Why did I want to go for a touch down? Because I'm stupid and I wanted to do something nice. I was just stupid, stupid to believe I'd make it. But he broke my bones with the intention of breaking them. He threw himself on me, knowing that I'd probably get something broken.

"What's wrong?"

"He did it with the intention", I tell him.

"What did wo do with which intention?", he asks.

"My bones... he broke them with the intention to do that."

"He did but you can't let anyone get you down. There has to be a chance of you still being in the team, even though you can't play", Niall says.

I nod. My head's shutting off now and all I want to do is sleep now. I lay down with my back turned to Niall. He turns the TV off, cuddeling himself up to my back. We just lay there for a while until I feel my ribbs starting to hurt. I turn on my back.

"I'm sorry that we can't do anything fun right now", I whisper to Niall.

"It's okay. Maybe you could just lay on your back and I'll cuddle up to you", he says.

I feel him pull me up to him. He kisses my cheek slightly, as I lay next to him. I feel his arm sneak over my stomach. Niall lays his head by my neck, breathing warm air at it. I shiver slightly at the warm air on my cold skin. He kisses my neck slightly, as I'm about to fall asleep.

"Good night, Max", he whispers into my ear.

"Good night, Niall."